


Best Friends Forever

by deanmoxbrose



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 01:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4900483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanmoxbrose/pseuds/deanmoxbrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’d been best friends once, absolute, and seeing Jess like this set Emily’s insides on fire. She wanted to scream and punch and kick and fucking KILL the thing that’d done this to her. (or, the one where Emily is the one to find Jess in the mines and she realizes that petty boyfriend drama is nothing when you’re trying to survive a night of terror.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Friends Forever

**Author's Note:**

> honestly, Emily is petty, but i can't see her being so petty that she wouldn't want to help her former best friend escape the mines from a Wendigo, so that's what this story is about. girls helping girls! Emily saves the day! friendship beats all!

Emily had no idea where she was, and worse, she couldn’t tell if she was even heading in the right direction or not. All she knew was that she was _not_ going back. Partly because it was a dead end that opened up into a giant fucking chasm, thanks to the tower, but ninety-nine percent because of that — that thing that had attacked her. The thought made her shudder, made bile rise in her throat as her stomach churned uneasily.

It had grabbed her. Dragged her deeper into the mines. If she hadn’t saved that flare gun she’d found, who knew what it would have done to her? Her mind told her that what she’d seen and heard, what she’d _felt_ — the sharp claws that had grabbed her, the inhuman strength — was wrong, that things like that didn’t exist in the real world. It had to just be some kind of maniac, right? Like Chris had said, some psychopath who lived on the mountain and preyed on young, stupid kids like them.

But no matter what her mind conjured up to try and explain it away, she knew better. 

And Matt…. Was he down there too somewhere? Had he survived? She’d tried to save him, she had, and maybe if the tower had held on for just a second longer, just one more second, she might have been able to. 

Or fuck, maybe they both would have fallen. 

And with everything she’d said to him. God, she’d been so mean. After running into Chris and Ashley — which felt like it’d happened in another life, really — she’d been so scared, _terrified_ , even, but she hadn’t wanted to show it; that just wasn’t her. She was strong. She needed to be so that other people couldn’t hurt her. So instead, she’d taken it all out on him. And he’d let her. He’d never lost his patience with her or snapped back at her and now he was gone. 

Maybe if she hadn’t suggested they go to the fire tower. Maybe if they’d just gone back to the stupid lodge with stupid Ashley and Chris…. It was all her fault, wasn’t it?

“Get a hold of yourself, Em,” she hissed at herself, opening her eyes wide and blinking rapidly because she was _not_ going to cry now, no way. She was afraid and sore and feeling so desperate, but she was not going to be like those silly women in horror movies, just sobbing all over the place and waiting for someone else to save them. If she hadn’t had that moment of weakness at the tower, back when that thing had been trying to get in, maybe none of this shit would have happened. 

Her eyes had adjusted, but it was still way too dark. Too dark and too cold. _Like your heart_ , said a voice in the back of her mind. She told that voice to fuck off and pressed on, stumbling slightly over the uneven ground. She couldn’t change how she’d treated Matt before they’d gotten to the tower. There was no use beating herself up over it. 

She came upon a table, and not just that, but a table with a lantern on it. _And_ a lighter, an old metal Zippo that felt like ice in her fingers. Oh, please — please, please, please — let the lighter work. The lantern creaked as she opened it, rusted but not broken, and though the lighter took a few tries, it flickered to life and gave her a little flame. Fuck yeah! Between this and the flare gun, maybe luck was on her side, after all. 

At this rate, she’d even find out Matt was still alive too.

As she picked up the lantern and turned to get her bearings, she heard the shout of effort before she saw the shovel cutting through the air right towards her face. Emily had just enough time to bite out a protest and thrust her free hand up to stop it, and the old, tarnished tool snapped in half before it clattered to the ground uselessly. 

“What the —?”

And then Emily saw who’d been wielding the shovel. 

“ _Jessica_? Is that — are you seriously here right now?” 

Jess barely looked like herself. In fact, Emily wasn’t even sure it was her until she’d spoken. “Em?” Her voice was weak and broken, hoarse as if she’d been screaming, and Emily’s chest went tight, like there was a steel band compressing around her. 

“Jess,” she said again, and then once more just for good measure, and she felt so stupid. She shook her head and lurched towards the other girl, reaching for her and feeling only slightly stung when Jess flinched back. “Oh my god, what _happened_ to you?”

But really, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. She was in the mines, wasn’t she? That meant she’d probably seen it too, the thing that had almost killed Emily. But at least Emily didn’t look like she’d been dragged through the deepest, darkest pits of hell like Jess did. Her blonde hair was a mess, matted with dirt and blood, and her face was swollen and bruised up, caked with dried blood. She swayed on her feet, shivering in a mining coat and boots that definitely weren’t hers, and Emily would have had a comment or two about them under different circumstances.

God, how she wished for different circumstances.

She brought the lantern closer, her throat drying as she saw the deep scratches and cuts that littered Jess — down her neck and across the parts of her chest that were visible. Holy _hell_.

“How are you still alive?”

Jess shook her head, looking like even she couldn’t believe it, and she rasped out, “Yeah….” 

“It did this to you, didn’t it?” Emily asked. A year ago, Jess would have laughed and her eyes would have flashed, bright and amused, and she would have said, _Gee, thanks, Captain Obvious!_ to a question so stupid. Emily would have given anything to get that reaction now.

But instead, Jess’ eyes were dull and unfocused in her pallid face, and her voice was more serious than Emily had ever heard it — solemn and scared. “It — it came after me, Em. It pulled me down here into this — this fucking _nightmare_! You’ve seen it? Tell me you’ve seen it.”

“I saw… something,” Emily said. “It almost got me too, but I….” _But I don’t think I would have survived it like you_. 

Jess looked strangely relieved, like she’d thought Emily wouldn’t have believed her, and she staggered forward, like she’d collapse at any moment. She shook her head again and gave a sob that was both painful and heartbreaking. “Oh god. Emily.” And like it just felt good to say her name, Jess said it again. “ _Emily_.” 

They’d been best friends once, absolute, and seeing Jess like this set Emily’s insides on fire. She wanted to scream and punch and kick and fucking _kill_ the thing that’d done this to her. At that moment in time, their stupid little argument at the lodge meant nothing, her stupid 4.0 GPA meant nothing, and stupid Michael Munroe meant nothing.

All that mattered was that Emily was getting Jess out of there, or she was going to damn well die trying. She might have failed Matt, but she had a chance to make up for it now, and if anyone deserved it, it was Jess. Jess, who’d kept all of Emily’s secrets, even after they’d had their falling out, who still lied to Emily’s parents to cover up for all the times in the past she’d used her as an alibi, who’d gone as far as to return the clothes of Emily’s that she’d borrowed — while Emily herself had delighted in cutting up some of Jess’ and dumping the rest at a Goodwill Superstore. 

Emily reached for Jess, and this time, Jess didn’t flinch. She grabbed her best friend’s shoulder and ducked her head down a little to try and meet her gaze. “Jess, can you move?” she asked. 

Jess didn’t even think before she nodded. _For you, I can keep going_ , her eyes said. 

“Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here, okay? Keep up with me.”

The lantern wasn’t as much of a help as Emily had hoped it would be, but at least it helped her not to trip over anything else. She navigated through the frigid, dank tunnels, stopping every now and then when she was sure she heard something, and Jess remained at her side — weak and slow, but determined. 

As they came across a cave-in, Emily held the lantern up to try and see from where it’d happened. Did that mean they were close to the surface? Could they get out somewhere around here? 

“Where…?” she mused to herself, before finishing the sentence in her head. _Where the fuck do I go, what the fuck do I do, how the fuck do we get out?_  

Jess piped up for the first time since they’d started moving. “That was me.”

“Are you shitting me?” 

“I fell through that roof.” 

Emily stared at her, almost waiting to see if there was a punchline, but Jess just swayed on her feet and swallowed visibly, blinking slowly like it took everything in her to keep her eyes open. “This far?” Emily asked. “ _Shit_ …. Well, that makes two of us, I guess.” 

“Huh?”

“There was this stupid fire tower,” Emily said, nudging Jess’ arm to let her know they were moving again. There was a pathway near the cave-in, and god, Emily just hoped it didn't lead them deeper. Jess trudged after her, looking considerably paler and more blue than before, and all Emily could think was, _don’t you freaking die on me, not now. I will bring your ass back to life just so I can kill you myself if you leave me here alone_. 

“You’re kidding.”

“I fell down here and that’s when I was attacked by that _thing_ , that freaking monster, or whatever. Seriously, what is that thing?”

“Nothing good,” Jess said. 

Emily stopped so Jess could catch up with her, and as she did, she realized Jess was staring at her with a sudden, surprising clarity. Something about the look in her eyes, soft and warm, made Emily feel insanely guilty, though she didn’t know why. It wasn’t until Jess spoke that Emily realized it was because she’d known exactly what Jess had been thinking. 

“Em, I’m — I’m sorry.”

“Shut up.” 

“All that stuff I said…. Back at the lodge?”

“I said shut up, Jessica. It doesn’t matter. What matters is getting the hell out of this nightmare, right?” 

Jess went quiet, but she apparently wasn’t ready to drop the subject just yet. As she opened her mouth again, Emily grimaced at her words, actually kind of glad that Jess was behind her and couldn’t see her face. 

“I didn’t mean any of it. You had to know I didn’t mean it.” 

That was the difference between them, wasn’t it? Emily scoffed. “Well… at the time, _I_ meant what I said. But now — I don’t mean it anymore, I guess.” Nearly dying put a lot of things into perspective, didn’t it? 

“And Mike….” 

“Can we _please_ talk about this later, you know, when we aren’t struggling to find our way out of a freaking mountain?”

“What if I don’t get the chance?”

“You’re going to. We’ll have a good old-fashioned cat fight — that I’ll win, naturally — as soon as we get out of this, okay? I promise.”

And Jess actually laughed. The sound was like sandpaper and it seemed like it hurt her to do it, but Emily found herself smiling a little bit, despite it all. 

“I just — god it seems so stupid, now,” Jess murmured. Her voice sounded farther away so Emily stopped and waited for her to catch up again. “I shouldn’t have —”

“Look, there’s a lot of shit I shouldn’t have done either. But it doesn’t matter,” Emily said. And Jess looked like she was still going to press the issue, so Emily added, “Even if you _did_ break a serious girl code when you agreed to go out with Mike.” 

That seemed to be what Jess wanted — to take the blame for something. She nodded, smiled a little sadly, and she fell silent as they continued on. The truth was, Emily didn’t even care about her and Mike anymore. The relationship had gone on much longer than it probably should have, and only because Emily had dug her claws into him and refused to let go because she simply had’t wanted to be single. When he’d finally broken up with her, she’d been upset, sure, but mostly she’d been pissed that she hadn’t been the one to do the dumping. 

All that was petty bullshit, though, high school drama that didn’t mean a thing right now. She could definitely put it behind her with a fucking _monster_ after them. 

The tunnel started to go up, and Emily cursed at the sudden incline. She was going to have to find a rope and tie Jess to her back or something sooner or later. Jess had barely been handling the level ground and now they had a slope? 

The shriek behind them was familiar, and it pierced Emily with a fear that felt ice cold. 

“Fuck,” Jess said, her voice small. 

“Come on.” Emily grabbed her arm and jerked her closer, and though Jess winced in pain, Emily couldn’t find it in her to care at the moment. A little pain now to keep Jess safe from a lot of pain later, she thought. 

There was a gap next to them, in the wood planks and stone, and she was sure the two of them would be able to squeeze into it if they needed to. Another sound stirred behind them, and Emily held the lantern out towards the rest of the tunnel, judging how quickly they’d be able to move. Hiding seemed to be the safer option, and she shoved Jess towards the gap.

She was shushing her before they were even ducking behind the planks, and Jess just curled in on herself like she could make herself smaller. Emily kept the lantern as far away from the opening as possible, not wanting whatever that thing was to see the light, and she held her breath. If it found them, she’d… well, she didn’t know what she would do, but maybe she could still give Jess a chance. 

She covered her mouth with her free hand as she heard the monster scuttling around on the other side of the planks. The noises it made, the fierce little grunts, made Emily’s stomach seem to sink deeper and deeper, and she was just starting to think it was over — they were doomed, they were both going to die — when it continued up the tunnel and disappeared out of earshot. 

She breathed out slowly in relief. 

And it was only because she’d glanced at Jess at that exact moment that she saw the other girl start to collapse. She spit out a curse and grabbed Jess, hooking her arm around her, and she hauled her up. Jess gasped and struggled to regain her balance. Jesus, had she started to pass out right there?

Jess whimpered. “ _God_ , it hurts.”

“I know, I know,” Emily said softly, the words leaving her before she could think about them. She slipped past Jess to peer out of the gap, eyes searching the darkness for any hint of movement, and she had to take a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. Looking at Jess again filled her with a little more resolve. “We’re almost there.”

“You can’t know that,” Jess said with a tearful laugh that sounded more like a cough. 

“Remember that time we both agreed that I was _always_ right and you should _always_ do whatever I say?” 

“I remember that conversation a little differently.” 

“Let’s go.” 

Still holding onto Jess, Emily started to lead her up the path, and was she seeing things, or was it lighter towards the other end of this tunnel? It felt colder too, like there was actually wind blowing in from outside? Were they nearing the surface? 

“Come on, come _on_ ,” she insisted, trying to pick up the pace, all but dragging Jess along with her. 

“I’m — trying.”

“Try harder!” 

At Emily’s words, there came another sound behind them, the stupid fucking _thing_ had found them again. She urged Jess on, shoving her in those too big boots and making her lose her footing — but she did keep her up at the same time, so she thought that more than made up for it — and she risked a quick glance over her shoulder.

She hadn’t gotten a good look at the monster when it’d attacked her before, but what she was able to make out now was _awful_. The thing was ug-ly. Emaciated and long-limbed, humanoid in a way, but looking almost spider-like in how it crawled along the wall of the cave. _Gross, gross, gross_ , Emily thought frantically. 

They needed to get the fuck out of there _now_. 

The tunnel veered into a sharp left, but they had discovered the source of the faint glow — it turned out to be a wall of flimsy wood planks. Some were missing, letting in both the bitter cold air and the illumination of the moon outside, and Emily could have cried she was so grateful. There it was. They’d made it. They were going to be okay. 

The monster screeched behind them and Emily wasted no time. She threw herself into the wall of planks, knocking down as many that she could in one go, and she thrust Jess through first. She’d apologize later for any scratches and splinters, she figured. 

The tunnel opened up onto a ledge, and Jess groaned as she shimmied along the edge, away from the hole Emily had made. _Don’t look down, don’t look down_ , Emily told herself over and over, reminded of the event at the cable car station, and she stepped out onto the ledge to join Jess. 

No sooner than she’d flattened herself against the wall did the monster appear at the opening. Another whimper-like noise left Jess, but the girls went stock still and as quiet as they could. At one point Emily thought Jess might have even stopped breathing entirely, but she couldn’t look away from the monster to check — her eyes were glued to it. It hesitated there for a long, long moment, its bulbous head swiveling as it seemed to be looking for them — could it smell them? how did this thing even _see_? — and Emily just thought, _please, god, please_. 

And then it was gone. Like it’d given up or simply lost interest, the monster disappeared back inside. 

It was gone. 

Emily hadn’t realized she was grasping Jess’ jacket still, but as she turned to look at her, she found she was clutching the material so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. She let go, meaning to take her hand back entirely, but before she knew it, her arm was around Jess once more, pulling her close. Jess clung to her in return, panting and making soft sounds of pain, but she was safe, and Emily had done it. 

She looked off towards the trees, able to spot the roof of the lodge in the distance, and she let out all of her breath in a shaky sigh. She’d saved both of their lives. She’d fallen off of a damn fire tower, nearly been killed by that _and_ the stupid monster, and Jess looked like hell, but she’d done it. They were both going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay.

She looked back at Jess, sweeping a lock of blood-caked hair off of her forehead. “I told you we were almost there,” she said smugly. 

Jess looked up at her, seemingly bemused, before she started to laugh.

And fuck it, Emily laughed with her. What else were best friends for? 

 

**Author's Note:**

> and i may or may not have started shipping them halfway through writing this, oops!
> 
> hey, find me on [tumblr](http://kylesoreilly.tumblr.com)! i i have tons of feelings about these characters, so if you're looking for more people to cry with about these babies, hmu
> 
> but, most importantly, i hope everyone who reads this likes it~


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